Rafi Reguer presents “Jewish Humor and the Movies” through the films, “A Day at the Races” featuring the Marx brothers, and Woody Allen’s “Annie Hall” at Beth El Synagogue on Sundays, March 20 and April 3. Each of the afternoons includes an introduction, screening of the film, and a post film discussion. Reservations are required. Babysitting services are available and refreshments will be served. Admission is $3.
A West Windsor resident, Reguer has been performing improvisation and standup comedy for 20 years. He has always enjoyed comedy and was part of the debate team in school. Reguer studied at Chicago’s City Limits in New York City and has taught improv comedy classes in the area for several years. “Comedy came naturally,” he says.
“Humor at the expense of immigrants was part of vaudeville and the Marx brothers were stock characters — playing the same characters in every film,” says Reguer. Harpo portrayed the new immigrant fresh off the boat by not talking. Chico, who spoke with a thick accent, created misunderstandings of idiomatic expressions. Groucho, who spoke and already knew the ropes, was always looking to make money. “It’s universal and applies to all immigrants,” says Regeur.
“Although the Marx brothers made Jewish humor by throwing in a Yiddish word here and there, they were never identified as being Jewish,” he says. “Jews were always the oppressed minority. Saul Bellow always said ‘oppressed people tend to be witty.’”
Born in Port Chester, New York, Reguer was raised in Manhattan and then Guttenberg, New Jersey — a small town on the Hudson River between the George Washington Bridge and the Lincoln Tunnel. His mother worked in corporate finance and now volunteers at the Jewish Museum. His father is a physician who now works one on one teaching reading at a charter school in Newark. His sister, a social worker with the Coast Guard, works with domestic violence cases.
Reguer graduated from University of Pennsylvania with a bachelor’s degree in English and a minor in psychology. He is the head of marketing and corporate communications at Direct Edge, a privately held financials service company.
He and his wife, Lori, a trusts and estates attorney in New York City, moved from New Rochelle, New York, to West Windsor seven years ago. Their two sons are 5 and 9.
“A Day at the Races” stars Groucho Marx, Chico Marx, and Harpo Marx in a film about a vet posing as a doctor, a race horse owner, and his friends struggling to help keep a sanitarium open with the help of a misfit racehorse.
In “Annie Hall,” Woody Allen plays a neurotic comedian and Diane Keaton his on again, off again ditzy girlfriend.
“Woody Allen really deals with being Jewish in America very differently than the Marx brothers,” says Reguer. “While many look at the films for entertainment, part of the idea is to have a discussion before and after the film.”
— Lynn Miller
Jewish Humor and the Movies, Beth El Synagogue, 50 Maple Stream Road, East Windsor. Sunday, March 20, 3 p.m. Screening of “A Day at the Races.” Register. $3. 609-443-4454. www.bethel.net.
Also, Sunday, April 3, 3 p.m. Screening of “Annie Hall.” Register. $3.
